Friday, March 9, 2012

rain and a lazy day

Thursday the girls decided they wanted to go hit the stores and do some shopping. Rob and I both had a couple of small projects to work on so the women went one direction and us guys went the other.

Our first stop was Lowes. Rob wanted to extend the ramp for loading his Goldwing into their Raptor toy hauler. The ramp door has a small plywood extension that is hinged to the door and he wanted to replace this piece with a longer one. My project was to change the way the controls for the winch on my Rampage Motorcycle Lift hooked up. We picked up Rob's plywood and some 12 volt connectors and headed back to "gitter done".My Rampage has a plug on the front (drivers side) of the winch motor for the controls which is a button on the end of a long cord. The plug has always been on the wrong end in my opinion because when the ramp is extended to the ground the cord has to be stretched its full length for you to barely reach the handlebars of the bike. Rob had given me the plug and cord from his old motorcycle lift when he changed over to a new winch. His old cord and plug were the same as mine and the scheme was hatched. By running 3 wires from the existing plug to the passenger side of the truck we were able to attach the additional plug. We drilled a hole into the diamond plate covering on the bed and mounted the plug so it was flush. Now I can operate the winch easily from either side of the truck :-).

Next we tackled Rob's ramp. He had Lowes cut the new board to size when he purchased it so that chore was already done. We removed the screws from the old piece and found that it had a metal guard between it and hinge. We used the guard as a template to drill the holes in the new board and then bolted it on. Easy as pie! Now Rob can raise the ramp a little higher, using jack stands for support, and decrease the angle from the top of the ramp to the ground. This will give him an easier entry into the garage area when he rides the Goldwing in.

We no more got the tools put away when the rain started. We made arrangements to meet the girls at Applebee's for lunch. The rain was off and on the rest of the afternoon. We were hoping to cook some burgers on the grille but the dark clouds rolled in and it started pouring. We went to plan B and cooked the burgers on the stove. The rain continued all evening and into the night.

Friday was a lazy day for us. Rob and Jany went into town and visited some antique shops, Rudee made a run to the store and I took my chair, ice tea and Kindle Reader over by the river to relax. I read, watched the boats and enjoyed the quiet for a couple of hours ...... ahhhhhh!I did, with Rudee's help, get the bike loaded back onto the truck. She was impressed with the modification on the winch controls, Cool :-).Rob got hooked up and loaded his bike as well. Hard to believe we have been here a week already. None of us want to leave but Rob has to be back at work and we are looking forward to seeing our kids and grand kids.We plan on pulling out tomorrow morning and getting 300 miles or so before stopping for the night somewhere. This will give us a short day on Sunday so we can get the 5er set up and over to our daughters house for a cook out Sunday afternoon. We are going to get some Mamaw and Papaw hugs and kisses! I'll keep you posted.

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About Me

We sold our house in 2009 and moved into our Montana 5th Wheel living and working in Central Indiana, saving for early retirement. That day finally came and in October of 2011 we dropped out of the rat race for a life on the road! In October of 2012 we traded the Montana and Freightliner for a Winnebago Journey motor home. Follow along as we travel the country living and working from our RV.